Everything you need to know about the Dallas Zoo's new elephants

Seventeen elephants arrived to the U.S. from drought-stricken Swaziland on March 11. Five of the elephants went to the Dallas Zoo. One was pregnant and gave birth in May. The elephants were the subject of a lawsuit filed against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that sought to overturn the permit allowing the Dallas, Wichita and Omaha zoos to import them.

Last week, Friends of Animals said it planned to continue the case to prevent a transfer from happening again or to force the zoos to "send these elephants home if a safe place for them can be found in the wild".

Even as zoo officials held a press conference to detail the elephants’ early morning arrival from drought-ravaged Swaziland, the animals were still lumbering out of their comfortable, custom-made crates into the zoo barn at their own pace. “They decide when they want to come out of the crates,” said Gregg Hudson, the zoo’s president and CEO, at a news conference Friday. “And they’re taking their time coming out of there.

By the time the restraining order was filed, the zoos had already sedated the elephants and placed them into crates for the airplane, or were in the process of transferring them from temporary bomas to the airport, Dallas Zoo veterinarian Chris Bonar said in a court document.